DURBAN: Pakistan white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan bagged multiple unwanted during the first T20I of the three-game series against South Africa at Kingsmead on Tuesday.
Pakistan suffered a heart-wrenching 11-run defeat as they fell short of their target of 184 runs, despite Rizwan occupying the crease throughout the innings before ultimately falling in the final over.
The wicket-keeper scored a scratchy knock of 74 runs from 62 balls at a strike rate of 119.35 with the help of eight boundaries, including three sixes.
He came in as an opener and had scored 46 runs from 49 balls by the end of the 16th over, with his team needing 60 runs from the last four overs to secure victory.
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He switched gears and targeted the teenage bowler Kwena Maphaka, hitting two sixes in the next over and completing his half-century in 50 balls.
However, he couldn’t take his team across the line, as he was out on the second delivery of the final over.
Rizwan’s strike-rate of 119.35 marked his third-lowest in an innings where he scored over fifty runs. His unbeaten run-a-ball 53 against Canada during this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup remains his slowest fifty-plus innings to date.
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The scratchy innings also ranked as the second slowest 70-run innings by a captain in men’s T20 Internationals, second to New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, who had scored 70 off 60 balls against Pakistan back in 2016.
Furthermore, Rizwan’s 62-ball 74 placed him fourth on the list of the slowest T20I innings by a full-member batter facing 60 or more balls in a chase.
This record closely trails that of his fellow countryman Sarfaraz Ahmed, who managed an unbeaten 76 runs off 64 balls against New Zealand in 2014, but in a victorious effort.
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